Printing presses can feature a magnetic cylinder for supporting a metallic printing plate. The magnetic cylinder holds the printing plate having an image to be printed. The plate cylinder receives ink from a set of inking cylinders mounted adjacent thereto and transfers the ink to a blanket cylinder. The blanket cylinder then transfers the ink to paper. Mounting the metallic printing plate on the magnetic plate cylinder is difficult and problems are often encountered. Particularly, it is necessary that the printing plate be properly oriented when mounted on the plate cylinder. Mounting is typically done manually by an operator aligning the plate with two register pins and advancing the printing plate onto the plate cylinder by rotating the plate cylinder. The magnetic attraction of the plate cylinder draws the metallic printing plate onto the cylinder. However, the magnetic force of the plate cylinder can pull the metallic printing plate when the metallic printing plate is not aligned properly, thus making mounting in register more difficult.
The present invention provides an image plate mounting and positioning device for facilitating initial alignment and mounting of a metallic printing plate to a magnetic plate cylinder.